Photos from Sabula

 

Today I will post the photos from Sabula that weren't uploading when I was trying to blog from our bed and breakfast in Galena. Actually, these first two are of the bird party we saw in Bellevue: pelicans and cormorants!

And this is the war memorial they have in Bellevue.

We stopped at a park on a tiny island along the bridge to Sabula, as you come from the Iowa side. This is a view of the city, which is on a much larger island, from the tiny island park.

We saw lots of cormorants flying overhead in Sabula.

And we saw two beautiful white egrets.

There was a cormorant right by them, swimming with only its head above the water.

We had no idea there was a bed and breakfast in Sabula! We might have to stay here sometime. Know what they don't have in Sabula? A Catholic church. The closest one is in Savannah (admittedly, that's very close), and they have Mass at 8:30 Sunday morning. Ugh - too early! We actually passed a fancier-looking bed and breakfast on the way to the bridge to Savannah, but this one is called the Castle, and it has a certain charm.

Check out the balcony on this house! Actually, the balcony's not that weird, but that upper story sure is. It's like five feet wide!

Here are photos from the Mississippi Palisades State Park, from the overlook. These are, I'm gonna say... islands?

And this is the wood duck. He was way below us, but Travalon got a good shot of him.

And this is the bridge to Sabula from Savannah, as seen from the overlook.

Still to come: videos of very long trains going very fast, from the high vantage point of the Dubuque Monument and the Mississippi Palisades overlook. When we first heard the train below us at the Dubuque Monument, I was a little bummed because a few minutes earlier we had been hiking right by the tracks, and I thought how cool it would have been if the train had passed right by us... but then I realized how much more excellent it was to view it from up above.

Today on my morning walk, I saw a deer run by, then it saw me and stopped and stared at me. It didn't move - I eventually had to leave because I had to get back to work.

One of my strawberry plants seems to have vanished, but the other one is still putting out pretty pink blossoms. My aunt said she has one that blooms red, and she sent a photo! Check it out!

Today at lunch, a train passed by, so that was fun. It made me feel like my vacation wasn't really over.

Granted, this is a little baby train with one engine, not like the quarter-mile-long ones we saw all up and down the river. We even saw a few on our river cruise yesterday. And this one is putt-putting along, not like the ones in Dubuque that were really flying along. The one we saw from the Mississippi Palisades overlook was going so fast that after it passed, the tracks were bending for a few seconds. So weird to see! Unfortunately, you can't really see that on the video Travalon made, but I promise that I will edit it and post it here eventually.

Famous Hat